Woodland, Scrub and Hedgerow in RCT

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RCT is full of trees, and approximately a third of the County Borough supports scrub or tree cover. RCT is one of a dozen or so Local authority areas in the whole of Great Britain with greater than 25% tree cover. In terms of different woodland types, there are a number of broad woodland categories, although in many woods these different woodland types often intergrade and occur in complex mosaics with one another.

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Ancient woodlands are sites that have been wooded since (at least) 1600 when the first maps were produced.  Many will have had woodland cover far older than that, and in some cases, sites may have been woodland habitats for thousands of years. Long-standing woodlands are our most important woodland habitats.

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There is also a huge amount of secondary woodland in RCT, woodlands of more recent origin (as an approximation less than 100 years in age and often much younger). Ash, sycamore and silver birch are typical in such woodlands, but in RCT oak is also often an early coloniser of open ground. Hawthorn and blackthorn are frequent associates and, on wetter ground, alder, downy birch and willows. Tree colonisation depends on soil types, location, and proximity of seed source. The colonisation of new woodlands has done much to inform our understanding of the natural processes of woodland development. While ash often colonises under oak, and extreme (and some might say pointless) interventions are required to promote oak germination, it is apparent that in the right conditions (which seem to include open ground), oak will very successfully appear. While oak is often loth to regenerate in oak woods, abandoned fields adjacent to oak woodlands can successfully regenerate as pioneer oak woodlands.  The concept of oak as a pioneer species is perhaps something to ponder.

 

The powers of natural woodland regeneration and colonisation are extraordinarily strong in RCT. Open ground left unmanaged for just a few seasons will rapidly regenerate into open scrub and young woodland from nearby hedgerows and old woodland. From a biodiversity perspective this natural tree regeneration is hugely preferable to the prescribed and artificial process of tree planting, with its attendant carbon-foot print, plastic tubes and potential for importation and spread of tree disease. Unfortunately, natural tree colonisation and regeneration does not currently ‘count’ in national woodland creation targets. This exclusion of the natural means of increasing woodland cover is clearly an aberration, which needs to be remedied. If not, there is a significant risk that the pressures to meet national woodland cover increases disaggregated to an RCT level will require the targeting of sites with semi-natural habitat cover, which is important for other priority habitats and species.

 

Broadleaved woodland planting is, in biodiversity terms a poor imitation of native broadleaved woodlands. Such plantations lack structure and the capacity that natural regeneration brings for species to naturally seek out and utilise conditions. While the planting of species rich woodland mixes may initially seem beneficial, there is a real danger of both introducing species or genetic stock which is not native in RCT (or in different parts of RCT), and through the apparent ‘instantaneous’ creation of species rich woodlands undermines and confuses the conservation priorities of our important ancient woodland heritage. While broad-leaved plantations can provide important landscaping and screening, they are typically artificial habitats. The desire to plant broadleaved woodlands on semi-natural habitats, or to reclaim ‘derelict’ land (such as species rich coal spoil) run the very real risks of delivering considerable net biodiversity loss.